First Christmas

Olivia celebrated her first Christmas this year. Although she can't talk yet, we are sure Olivia was very excited! Well, at least her parents were. It was wonderful to be home for the holidays and see everybody. Here are a few pictures.

Olivia's bib says it all - you can see the anticipation on her face.

Cousins hanging out in front of the tree.


The family just back from church. Olivia was very excited to wear her new dress, not so excited about the little shoes.


Papa and Olivia before Christmas Eve dinner.


Christmas morning, Olivia receives her first present from Santa! Good thing she wasn't naughty this year.

A few hours later, Heather, Debbie and Lauren check out Olivia's new outfit...


... while Nana, Papa and Aunt Kim look on.

Lazy Bloggers

My parents and I at Colonial Williamsburg.

Me and Olivia at Colonial Williamsburg

Hey everyone! Sorry we have not posted in a while but it was a crazy month of November. The above picture is of Justin getting promoted to Lieutenant at the beginning of November. I was able to put his Lt. pin on! It was great:) Justin spent a week in San Diego training for his upcoming trip to Iraq. I was home alone with Olivia which proved to be exhausting! My parents came to Virginia for thanksgiving which was great. They were such a help with Olivia and the house chores. As you can tell, we all went to Colonial Williamsburg and had a fantastic time. We went the day before Thanksgiving-it was 75 degrees outside and sunny. You can't beat that.
Justin is currently in San Diego and I am back in Illinois for the duration of the holidays. Justin comes home on Dec. 20th for the holidays. We are hoping to update the blog with some x-mas pics with the family.
Hope all is well with everyone. We hope to see everyone soon. Happy holidays!!

Happy Halloween

I know, no posts for a couple of weeks and then 2 in a row. I'm working on my consistency, so please no comments. Here is Olivia and Heather ready to hand out candy on Halloween. Unfortunately, few people showed up at the door. Instead we walked around the neighborhood while Heather tracked down the local kids and forced candy upon them.


Olivia and Heather sport their Halloween duds.


Olivia naps on her play mat.


Mama, Papa & Olivia out for a fall stroll.

OK. I know it's been awhile but with all the traveling, yada yada yada. So here are a couple of new pictures taken on our recent trip home. Olivia met all her cousins, aunts and uncles for the first time. She traveled like a trooper considering we drove to New England, home and back.

Olivia and her cousin Lauren hanging out.


The first family photo, Olivia was not particularly pleased. I wanted to use this picture for our Christmas card, Heather said no.

First Haircut

Olivia visited her Aunt Kim today for the first time. While her Mother's hair was getting done, Olivia got her first haircut. As you can see from the pictures, I think the cut was a success.

Olivia and Aunt Kim.

Getting her hair cut.

The new do.

Trip to Newport

Olivia's first big trip!! She's barely six months old and she will have already visited 11 states. Not that she will remember, but at least we have pictures for her. Here are a few from Newport RI.


Olivia and Heather at the Newport City Harbor.


Olivia and Justin outside the Naval Station gate.


Heather and Olivia dwarfed by The Breakers (the Vanderbilt summer home).

Olivia in Her Second Month

Less than a month and we will be back in Illinois. We are very excited and we can tell, Olivia is too. I took some timeout tonight to post some new pictures. Sorry it takes me a while in between postings.


Hanging out with Daddy.


More of the same.


One more.

Heather and I went out to dinner this past weekend (thanks to the Vaughn's and the G-parents.) It was a great time. If you ever get to Williamsburg VA, I recommend the Fat Canary. I took this picture of Heather before we left. I would say she is looking good one month later.

Coming Soon

Just to let everyone know, Justin has taken time off and we will be coming back to Illinois in October. Our scheduled days back will be October 7-25. We have spoken to many of you already and are planning on seeing friends and both families. We hope that we will be able to see everyone and are so excited about coming back. Olivia is changing so much each day and we can not believe she is a month old! Justin will be posting more pictures soon for you blog stalkers:)

Some Time Off... Finally

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but work has kept me really busy these last couple of weeks. My training operation ended and I can spend some time with the family. My parents are in town and helping out. Between Heather's parents and mine coming in, we have been a little spoiled. Olivia is doing great! She has been growing and changing every day. We have her on somewhat of a schedule and she sleeps pretty well at night, better than her Mom and Dad anyway. With all the help I was able to take some pictures and load them up. Hope you enjoy.


Getting ready for a bath.


First time in the tub.


Back at the beach.


With Mama and Papa.


First time in the Ocean.

Brief Hiatus

We know that many of you are checking the blog and patiently waiting for updates and pictures of Olivia. Justin has been working non-stop these past couple of weeks on a big project and we just have not had the time to take pictures or give updates. Justin has promised that next week when things calm down he will take more pics and post them for you avid blog watchers! We thank you for your patience and are sorry for any inconvenience. In the meantime, I am still trying to figure the nursing and mother thing out. It's been 3 weeks, you would think I would be an old pro by now:) Please give me more time and I promise I will call/email/send thank you's out soon.
Sincerely,
Tired and Exhausted

Trip to the Beach

We took a little trip to the beach the other day to introduce Olivia to the ocean. The fresh air, noise from the surf and ride in the Baby Bjorn put her out in no time. I think she liked the beach. We'll take her back there a lot.

Heather, Justin & Olivia (Olivia is in the middle.)

Some Pictures

It's been a little bit, but I found some time to upload some more pictures. Baby and Mommy are doing well. Nana and Papa are here and helping out. Having someone to cook, shop, clean and an extra pair of hands is wonderful. Lets us take a nap every once in a while. I will post more soon.


Nana and Papa


Washing Hair


Getting a Bath


All Dry


Going for a Ride

The First Week

What an incredibly overwhelming, amazing, tiring, whirlwind week it has been for us. The labor was relatively short and painless thanks to an amazing little drug called epidural. Nothing better than enjoying the birth of your child pain free! I apologize now for not having spoken to many of you as I am honestly feeling very overwhelmed and tired right now. I am nursing and never realized what a commitment it really is. I am feeding constantly and trying to stay awake when I am not. We appreciate all the well wishes and gifts and love and prayers throughout this first week! It has been humbling to know how loved Olivia and our little family is. I only ask one request of all of you. As much as I would love to talk and email and chat with everyone, I am really trying to focus on nursing and sleeping and enjoying Olivia's first few days with us. If you could just be patient with me, I will start calling everyone and emailing again when I get the hang of being a mother.

In the mean time, family is in town to help us for the next few weeks so we can really enjoy our little girl. Justin and I feel so blessed and are in more in love than ever now that we have created the perfect addition to our family.

Welcome Home!

Olivia came home today. All the hospital checks went fine and we left a little after noon. Below is our first family photo and a picture from the hospital with Dr. Cofield. If you decide to have a baby in the Hampton Roads area, you couldn't do much better than Dr. Cofield. We both liked her so much that it was sad to be done with the pregnancy.

Now we just need to figure out how to raise Olivia without help from the nurses. Shouldn't be too hard, right!?!?

May I Introduce...

The absolutely beautiful new addition to the family:

Olivia Marie
August 15, 2007 1:02pm
7 lbs 13 oz
20.5"







Birth story to follow...

No Change

Status Report: no contractions, no room at the hospital, and no baby. Guess what, we are supposed to be in tomorrow. Lies!!! I will update tomorrow with another report detailing how we didn't have a baby.

Scheduled for Tomorrow...

blah blah blah, calling first thing in the morning, blah blah blah, hospital is all ready for us, blah blah blah.

So rumor has it that we are scheduled for an induction tomorrow, allegedly. Maybe more pregnant mothers will fall from the sky and we will be bumped again. Anything is possible at this point. I'm sure by now we've ruined all the excitement. So come on mother nature, only she can get us in now!

The couple who cried wolf

Still no baby. At this point, I'm not going to speculate as to a possible date for the induction. The hospital has been booked solid for days now and we are not a top priority. To illustrate this, the hospital was so over loaded that several women were placed on stretchers while waiting for rooms and several babies were born in observation rooms yesterday. Heather is doing fine, all things considered, so we will be patient and wait for an open bed or for nature to force us in. So for now, no baby and no date.

Waiting for Nuggie

With nothing on the schedule today, we were a little bored. We walked around the mall because we heard that could induce labor. That didn't work so we took some pictures instead. Very artsy, huh?

And..... not so much

We called the hospital this morning and they told us there was no room. So as of now, no labor, no induction and no baby. It looks like this show is going to get bumped into next week on Monday or Tuesday. We are both a little disappointed and frustrated, but after all, the actual due date wasn't until the 14th. So maybe she will push her way out on her own, but as of now, no signs that she plans on doing that.

UPDATE:

The hospital rescheduled us for tomorrow morning. We are hopeful but not holding our breath. So it's off to the Mexican resturant, maybe the spicey food will get her out.

August 10

Well the date for the induction was changed from Thursday to Friday. So, if all goes according to plan, and there is a bed available in the hospital, the baby should be born tomorrow. We are keeping our fingers crossed. The schedule is to head to the hospital early in the morning, begin labor, have baby and call everybody! Seems simple enough. Not quite sure what Heather is worried about?!

So again, I will update here with some pictures tomorrow. The hospital has wireless internet so I will be able to post pictures as time and labor permits. Anybody have any guesses for the time of birth?

Nugget's Room

Upon request, here is a picture of Nugget's room. I took these pictures this evening and crudely stitched them together. We had a few things to finish up but had to move a little more quickly after we found out that Heather will be induced next week! So we finished up the room last night and are patiently awaiting the room's occupant. And yes, it's really not finished, the walls need some decoration.

Snakes on a Patio

Today, as Heather was outside watering the plants, she was interrupted by a visitor. The friendly little guy in the picture came by to say "hi." He likely lives in the woods (swamp) behind our house and was probably just coming over to check on his new neighbors. Heather, excited to meet our new friend, quickly grabbed the camera so she could fondly remember the day's events.

If you are curious about the snake, this site shows a little bit about it. Completely harmless and actually pretty cool, which is more than we can say about Heather after the encounter.

Happy Birthday.... to Heather!!

Happy Birthday to Heather. She is now 30 years old!! And very excited about it. Her birthday was nice and we baked her a cake. Please note the expert decorations. I now have a new found appreciation for professional cake decorators, although this one isn't bad for a rookie. At least I didn't make any misspellings.

We managed to fit 30 candles on this baby. The heat was intense and it took Heather four tries to blow out the entire conflagration. Heather really appreciated the phone calls and cards, it makes family seem closer.

Getting Closer

Although this picture is a few weeks old, it shows off the belly very well. Heather has been feeling good lately but getting uncomfortable, mostly at night. We have just about finished up with all the prenatal classes, painted the baby's room and done about everything we can to get ready.

As the date gets closer, I will be updating the site with more information. The due date is August 15th, so right now we are 25 days away. I will also be using this blog to post pictures both as we get closer and after the baby is born. Feel free to post or ask for pictures.